MASON CITY – Another store in Southbridge Mall is closed.
Tradehome Shoe store is completely out of business. There were workers inside the store Wednesday boxing up merchandise and display equipment.
One young Mason City millennial wandering in the mall told NIT, “Never seen so many closed store fronts here. This place is so sad. I wish I could ice skate or something. I guess I’ll go home and play video games instead, or maybe check out Bernie Sanders’ Twitter feed.”
The Tradehome sign had been removed from the top of the storefront. No one answered the phone at the store, nor did anyone answer the phone at the Southbridge Mall office.
Many in town are wondering when or if Younkers will close next, or if police will catch the creep who attacked a woman in the parking lot recently.
Today, a new sub shop will open in the food court area. The Submarine will have a grand opening event.
In 1973 I was a store manager with Kinney Shoes in Wichita, Kansas. I began my career with Kinney Shoes at the old downtown store in Mason City in 1965. At the time Kinney’s was a staple brand in the family shoe market. Owned by F.W. Woolworth co. Kinney Shoes had over 3500 stores coast to coast, and every major enclosed shopping mall built in the USA had a Kinney Store. All that remains of the Kinney empire is the “Foot Locker” chain of athletic shoe stores, and I fear they will not last long since there are so many “online” retailers vying for the same dollar. The high cost of mall rent and the abundance of selection in online stores will ultimately cripple and defeat that 1970’s phenomenon, the enclosed shopping mall.
Malls have been dying for years! It began with the growth of Walmart, that little Arkansas hardware store company that did Kmart better than Kresge did, and did Woolco better than Woolworth did. Woolworth also died a slow death years ago, losing the war for survival of the fittest. Though Kmart still hangs on, it is getting pretty “long in the tooth” and is destined for the retail graveyard, as is Sears Roebuck, co. Sears has a HUGE investment in major malls, and there is nothing worse for a mall than the loss of a storefront. Near where i now live in Crystal River Florida we have an enclosed mall. It has the general mall appearance, and the inside is quite nice actually, but empty. A few food court eateries still compete for the same dollar,but Sears, one of the major anchors is closed, replaced by, of all things, a Rural King. Now I love Rural King, but it is no replacement for a mall anchor store! Having managed stores in major malls all over the Midwest, and having been a member of the board of directors of several of them, trust me, I do know my Malls, and I assure you, what made them competitive for the consumer’s dollar in 1985 is not longer valid. You can expect your local mall to go the way of the “strip centers”. First they get “rent desperate” and begin leasing space to insurance offices and dentists. ( great for the dentist, not so great for the other mall tenants) Any “slug” or empty space is not good for any mall tenant. Any non-retail space whether rented or not, is not good for business. A mall is about SHOPPING, from store to store. Traffic is carefully planned: Sears to Penney’s, Henry’s to Macy’s, etc. A mall with 4 majors will have them laid out in an X format with smaller merchants between the major tenants. People with insurance problems or tooth aches do not shop! Mall ownership will take a rent check from almost anyone, so the death of the smaller mall merchants, unable to buy out a lease, will be slow and excruciating, but final. So, soon your local MALL will meet the bulldozer. It’s just a matter of time, and Amazon.
Those yes voters should have been buying shoes to keep them in business.
Flood the place and make it into a skating rinky dinky – save some dough – use it for the subways to no where.
http://sephlawless.com/inside-creepiest-abandoned-malls/
Looks like a great place for Paint Ball!!
These boots are made for walking……
There was a TradeHome Shoe store in the mall??
Yes there was. If you had ever stepped into the mall, you would have known this.
I have a “great” idea, lets build a hotel in the parking lot and then put something “exciting” in the mall, like a hockey rink which will draw hundreds of thousands of people to fill the hotel. they can wander around the mall looking at the empty store fronts wondering what used to be in them. we could have a contest where whoever names the most business’s that used to be in the empty stores gets a free pass to a hockey game. oh well, silly me
they jumped ship while the jumping was good. amen
IF the Tradehome store is Closed, why would you expect anyone to answer? If you read a persons obit, would you call them?
DOA!!!
Remember when Mason City had all those cool stores downtown. Some greedy assholes ended that with a shithole mall.
The said part about it was that Tradehome was the only store in the mall that I have regularly visited. Now I can’t think of a reason to go back there.
This mall will shut down for one reason or another but mostly because there is no businesses looking at moving into the mall. The city should tear it down and build a large ice rink/event center that would turn a profit.
The city doesn’t own the mall, so they can’t tear it down. The only way they could do that is if they condemned the property as blighted. (Which by the way they actually should do with Southport Mall on south Federal.)
The bookstore is gone too. Next will be Yonkers and then the lights go out.
Thought the hotel and ice rink was going to save the mall?
nothing is going to save this mall.
Oh but the “yes” voters are sure it will.
RIGHT a Hockey Association that commonly runs barely above water is going to EXPAND and save the mall. Even though the exact smae events held at the current arena will just be brought to this one. HAS ANYONE VETTED THE HOCKEY BOOKS OR GOTTEN A PAYMENT CONFIRMATION FROM THE HOCKEY ORGANIZATION FOR THEIR MILLION DOLLAR PLEDGE? …..cart before the horse.
Change the whole complex into a food-restaurant and custom bar court. Invite people to actually have a reason to come there. Kinda like “Downtown Disney” area which allows one styled restaurant from each style of food (one Italian, one Greek restaurant and so forth). Match it with cool bar/lounges/irish bars that people can access form inside.